PASS THE TRAUMA, PLEASE is a comedy-drama memoir that presents the most brutal moment of Jewish history in an unorthodox manner. It honors the life lessons of a Holocaust survivor who reveals long-buried truths about surviving as an orphan and soldier who fought for Israeli independence. His scandalous secrets are disclosed to his son during an unforgettable Sunday night dinner in a Chinese restaurant.
But it’s not just stories that were passed down from a survivor to his children. Genetically Inherited Holocaust Trauma hitches a ride, resulting in his son’s dysfunctional relationships and dubious behaviors. Like many books about the Holocaust, PASS THE TRAUMA, PLEASE addresses loss. But there’s also drug smuggling, attempts to reverse a circumcision, brothels, kibbutz ambushes, divorce, death camp visits, decadent nights at Studio 54, and tales of lost virginity. Despite his own insecurities as a writer, plus deep concerns that other genocides might soon eclipse the Holocaust, a catalyst that drives the author is... will he finish the book while his father, one of the last Holocaust survivors, is still alive?
Another motivation for the book’s unique structure and irreverent tone is the challenge thrown down by Todd Diamond’s father who said, “Do me a favor, son. No long-winded descriptions of the smells in the Ghetto, the corpses. Everyone knows this already. Elie Wiesel, Primo Levy, Anne Frank, that guy who wrote the comic book about the mouse, they all covered it. Don’t be afraid to slip in a few jokes. What do you call it again… that bullshit you always say… oh yeah, write something poster-punk.” He meant to say, post-punk. Todd’s father concluded his appeal by saying, “And besides, you’re no Elie Wiesel.”
So, while PASS THE TRAUMA, PLEASE probes the darkness of humanity, you’ll also find an equal amount of irreverence and humor that distinguishes it from most holocaust memoirs. The unrelenting ripple effect of a unique trauma that echoes through children raised in the long shadow of tragedy. He writes his story and the story of his parents and his extended family who perished in the Holocaust in a provocative and irreverent style to hopeful appeal and educate a broader readership. To that end, Todd finds light and humor amidst the wreckage, a real testament to the power of memory.
Pass The Trauma, Please
Todd Diamond, born in Queens, New York, a graduate of the Newhouse School Public Communications at Syracuse University, receiving a B.S. Degree in Advertising. After working at his first copywriting jobs in Providence and Boston, he left New England for Silicon Valley and started the DMNA Agency that grew to become the one of the largest advertising firms in Silicon Valley. After more than two decades leading his ad agency, Todd left Silicon Valley to break some ground of his own: he purchased a peony flower farm in Massachusetts. During the Covid pandemic hit and, Todd realized that he might not get the chance to spend time again with his father, a Holocaust survivor who lives in California. He therefore started writing his second-generation memoir, PASS THE TRAUMA, PLEASE, My Father's not-so-depressing Holocaust memoir about loveless, laughter, and legacy. Today Todd and his family now live in Northern Virginia.
Abe Foxman is an American lawyer and activist. He served as national director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) from 1987 to 2015 and is currently the League's national director emeritus. From 2016 to 2021 he served as vice chair of the board of trustees at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City leading its efforts on antisemitism.
“Pass the Trauma, Please isn’t just about the death camps, the gas chambers, the incomprehensible evil. It’s about the Holocaust and its aftershocks. The unrelenting ripple effect of a unique trauma that echoes through children raised in the long shadow of tragedy.” —ABE FOXMAN, former national director of the Anti-Defamation League.
“This original, provocative, and irreverent memoir presents us with a unique second-generation Holocaust survivor viewpoint that is worthy of a film script. It helps us fathom the unfathomable and even manages to make us laugh along the way. This is not your typical Holocaust story in any way, shape, or form, and therein lies its strength.”—JAY ROSENBLATT, Academy Award–nominated director
“It takes great courage to confront one’s demons by sharing them with your children, especially when they are now adults. Yet, that’s exactly what ninety-year-old Holocaust survivor David Diamondstein finally does—before his time runs out. Written with much love and wit, his son Todd comes to grips with his own trauma by connecting the historic dots between the Holocaust and the rise of current global antisemitism in the post–October 7th world. Pass the Trauma, Please stands as a unique memoir among Holocaust literature because it does far more than document the past. It connects the past to the present.” —HAYA MOLNAR, author of Under a Red Sky: Memoir of a Childhood in Communist Romania, winner of the National Jewish Book Award
“The enormity of the Holocaust could not possibly be dissipated in one generation. Todd Diamond’s daring, transgressive, entertaining memoir reads like a roller-coaster speeding from past to present and then back again, reimagining the unimaginable, looking for a finishing line that can never be crossed and a legacy that can’t be ignored.” —THANE ROSENBAUM, author of the post-Holocaust trilogy: The Golems of Gotham, Secondhand Smoke, and Elijah Visible.
"I laughed so hard at some of this and felt sick in other places. Definitely, a whirlwind of emotions. I sure wish I could meet Todd’s father. What a story.” —ELIZABETH ASDORIAN, creative director, Ancestry.com